Category: Materia Materica

Materia medica is a Latin term from the history of pharmacy for the body of collected knowledge about the therapeutic properties of any substance used for healing. The term derives from the title of a work by the Ancient Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides in the 1st century AD. The term materia medica was used from the period of the Roman Empire until the 20th century but has now been generally replaced in medical education contexts by the term pharmacology. The term survives in the title of the British Medical Journal’s Materia Non Medica column.

  • GALIUM APARINE

    Goose-Grass

    Galium acts on the urinary organs, is a diuretic and of use in dropsies, gravel and calculi. Dysuria and cystitis. Has power of suspending or modifying cancerous action. Has clinical confirmation of its use in cancerous ulcers and nodulated tumors of the tongue. Inveterate skin affections and scurvy. Favors healthy granulations on ulcerated surfaces.

    Dose.–Fluid extract; half-dram doses, in cup of water or milk, three times a day.

  • GALLICUM ACIDUM

    Gallic Acid

    Should be remembered as a remedy in phthisis. It checks the morbid secretions, gives tone to the stomach, and increases the appetite. Passive hæmorrhages when pulse is feeble and capillaries relaxed, cold skin. Hæmaturia. Hæmophilia. Itching of skin. Pyrosis.

    Mind.–Wild delirium at night; very restless, jumps out of bed; sweats; is afraid to be alone; is rude and abuses every one.

    Head.–Pain in back of head and neck. Thick, stringy discharge from nose; photophobia with burning of lids.

    Respiratory.–Pain in lungs; pulmonary hæmorrhage; excessive expectoration. Much mucus in throat in the morning. Dry at night.

    Urinary.–Kidneys painful, distress along ureters into bladder. Dull heavy pain in bladder, directly over pubis. Urine loaded with thick, cream-colored mucus.

    Rectum.–Copious stool; anus feels constricted. Faint feeling after stool. Chronic mucous discharges.

    Relationship.–Compare: Ars; Iod; Phos.

    Dose.–First trituration and pure acid 2 to 5 grain doses.

  • GALANTHUS NIVALIS

    Snow-drop

    Proving by Dr. A. Whiting Vancouver.

    Faintness, sinking sensations. Sore dry throat with dull headache. Half conscious and worried feeling during sleep. Heart weak with sensation of collapse as if she must fall. Pulse very irregular, rapid and uneven, violent palpitation. Systolic murmur at apex. Therapeutically-decided benefit in cases of Mitral Regurgitation with broken down compensation. Myocarditis with some degree of mitral insufficiency.

    Dose.–First potency to fifth.

  • FULIGO LIGNI

    Soot

    Acts on glandular system, mucous membranes and obstinate ulcers, epidermis, tetters, eczema. Chronic irritations of mucous membranes of mouth; pruritus-vulvæ; uterine hæmorrhage; cancer, especially of scrotum-chimney sweeper’s cancer; epithelial cancers; cancer of womb with metrorrhagia; sadness, thoughts of suicide.

    Relationship.–Compare: Kreosot.

    Dose.–Sixth trituration.

  • FUCHSINUM

    A Coloring Substance Used in Adulteration of Wine
    (FUCHSINA – MAGENTA)

    Produces redness of ears, deep red discoloration of mouth swollen gums, with burning and tendency to salivation; deep red urine, albuminous, and light red, profuse diarrhœa, with abdominal pains. Cortical substance of kidneys degenerated. Useful in cortical nephritis with albuminuria.

    Dose.–6x to 30th potency.

  • FUCUS VESICULOSUS

    Sea Kelp

    A remedy for obesity and non-toxic goitre; also exophthalmic. Digestion is furthered and flatulence diminished. Obstinate constipation; forehead feels as if compressed by an iron ring. Thyroid enlargement in obese subjects.

    Relationship.–Compare: Phytol; Thyroidine; Badiaga; Iodum.

    Dose.–Tincture, five to sixty drops three times a day before meals.

  • FRAXINUS AMERICANA

    White Ash

    Enlargement of the uterus. Fibrous growths, subinvolution, and prolapse. Uterine tumors, with bearing-down sensations. Fever sores on lips. Cramps in feet. Cold creeping and hot flashes. Infantile eczema.

    Head.–Throbbing pain in back of head. Depression, with nervous restlessness, anxiety. Hot spot on top of head.

    Female.–Uterus enlarged, and patulous. Watery, unirritating leucorrhœa. Fibroids with bearing-down sensation, cramping in feet, worse in afternoon and night. Dysmenorrhœa.

    Abdomen.–Tenderness in left inguinal region; bearing-down pain, extending down thigh.

    Relationship.–Compare: Fraxinus excelsior-European Ash –(Gout; rheumatism. Infusion of ash-leaves. Rademacher). Galega–(Goat’s Rue-Backache; debility; anæmia and impaired nutrition. Increases the quantity and quality of the milk in nursing women, also the appetite). Epiphegus; Sepia; Lilium.

    Dose.–Ten to fifteen drops of tincture, three times a day.

  • FRANCISCEA UNIFLORA

    Manaca
    (FRACISCEA)

    Chronic stiffness of the muscles. Gonorrhœal rheumatism. Syphilis and rheumatism, great heat over body, much aching, better sweat. Pain in back of head and spine; band-like feeling around head. Pericarditis with rheumatism. Rheumatic pains in feet and lower part of legs. Urine contains uric acid.

    Dose.–Tincture of Fluid Extract 10 to 60 minims.

  • FRAGARIA VESCA

    Wood-strawberry
    (FRAGARIA)

    Acts on digestion and mesenteric glands. Prevents formation of calculi, removes tartar from teeth and prevents attacks of gout. The fruit has refrigerant properties. Strawberries produce symptoms of poisoning in certain susceptible individuals, such as urticarial rashes (strawberry anaphylaxis). Here give Fragaria high potency.

    Chilblains; worse during hot weather. Lack of mammary secretion. Psilosis (Spruce).

    Mouth.–Tongue swollen; strawberry tongue.

    Skin.–Urticaria; petechial and erysipelatous eruptions. Swelling of whole body.

    Relationship.–Compare: Apis. Calcarea.

  • FORMALINUM

    Aqueous Solution (35 per cent) of Formaldehyde Gas
    (FORMALIN)

    Is a powerful disinfectant and deodorant; a potent poison. Prevents growth and kills almost any pathogenic micro-organism. It seems to have the peculiar property of eating into malignant tumors, leaving the surrounding healthy tissue uncharred and unchanged. A plug of cotton wool soaked in a 20 per cent solution of Formaldehyde, and applied for a few hours, will produce a necrotic slough, which must be scraped away before the next application, otherwise it hardens.

    Formalin in hot water as vapor most valuable therapeutic agent in pertussis, phthisis, in catarrhal affections of upper air-passages.

    Mind.–Forgetfulness. Anxiety. Unconscious.

    Head.–Coryza; eyes water; vertigo.

    Mouth.–Ptyalism, thick saliva; loss of taste.

    Stomach.–Food feels as if it were a ball in stomach. Burning in mouth and stomach.

    Abdomen.–Intense urging to stool, watery stools.

    Urinary.–Anuria; albuminous urine.

    Respiratory.–Dyspnœa. Laryngismus stridulus. Whooping-cough.

    Fever.–Chills in forenoon, followed by long fever. Bones ache during whole paroxysm. During fever forgets where he was.

    Skin.–Puckers skin like leather; wrinkles; scales off. Eczema in neighborhood of wound. Damp sweat most marked on right upper extremity.

    Relationship.–Antidote: Ammonia water. Compare: Ammonium formaldehyde, known commercially as Cystogen (Dose, five to seven grains two to four times daily, dissolved in hot water, after meals. Prevents the decomposition of urine in the bladder, kidneys, and ureters. Turbid urine rendered clear and non-irritating; phosphatic deposits dissolved, and growth of pyogenic bacteria arrested). Also, Urotropin (A diuretic and solvent of uric acid concretions; relieves cystitis associated with putrefaction. Three to five grains well diluted. When administered invariably appears in the cerebro-spinal fluid and therefore advised in threatened meningeal infection).

    Dose.–As vapor in hot water in respiratory affections; 1 per cent spray, otherwise 3x potency.